Mobile won the platform war on distribution, not capability
📰 Reddit r/programming
Mobile platforms won the distribution war due to lower update friction and channel control, not just capability
Action Steps
- Analyze the update friction of different platforms to understand how it affects user experience
- Evaluate the channel control of various platforms, including mobile, to determine its impact on distribution
- Compare the capabilities of native and non-native apps to identify areas where mobile genuinely wins
- Research the role of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India and its relation to mobile device usage
- Assess the implications of mobile platforms' dominance on future development and business strategies
Who Needs to Know This
Developers, product managers, and entrepreneurs can benefit from understanding the factors that contributed to mobile platforms' success, particularly in terms of distribution and update strategies
Key Insight
💡 Mobile platforms' success can be attributed to their ability to manage update friction and maintain channel control, rather than just their native capabilities
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📱 Mobile won the platform war on distribution, not capability! 🤔 Update friction and channel control were key factors
Key Takeaways
Mobile platforms won the distribution war due to lower update friction and channel control, not just capability
Full Article
Author here. Wrote this from the vantage point of having shipped Android apps from 2010 to 2019-20. It's a platform-war retrospective along an axis I don't see articulated cleanly very often: update friction and channel control rather than runtime capability. Short version of the argument: The native-only residue (where mobile genuinely wins on capability) is thinner than the narrative claims. UPI in India because the device is the chann
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